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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-09-22 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Women's and Children's Hospital

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:30): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Health and Wellbeing a question regarding hospitals.

Leave granted.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: In July 2018, in response to reports that the proposed new Women's and Children's Hospital might cost $1.8 billion, the Minister for Health and Wellbeing at the time told ABC Radio:

Personally I think that cost estimate needs to be tested…There've been a number of recent Australian hospital builds including children's hospitals that have been delivered well below that cost per bed and I think it needs to be tested…on the face of it, it's a very costly project.

Over the weekend, it has been revealed that the Women's and Children's Hospital task force estimated the cost of the new hospital at $1.895 billion. They put the due date for the final business case by March 2020, and suggested cost savings might be made from sharing services with the adjacent Royal Adelaide Hospital. Yesterday, on the wireless, the minister suggested pathology, pharmacy and back-of-house services might be shared to save costs on a new build. My questions to the minister are:

1. Why has the government refused to provide clinicians with information from the task force, including the costings and services that were recommended?

2. Why is the final business case for the hospital six months overdue, and what is the current deadline for the aforementioned final business case?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:31): I thank the honourable member for his question. It is indeed the case that in mid-2018 I suggested that cost estimates made at that time needed to be tested. I also believe that is true of the cost estimate in the April 2019 briefing that the honourable member refers to.

It is, on its own face, a preliminary estimate of the cost of the Marshall Liberal government's new Women's and Children's Hospital. The development of a detailed business case that is currently underway is fleshing out the project and testing the costings. The briefing, on its own face, indicates that the costing was prepared based on an initial building concept developed for the purpose of testing that it will fit on the expansion site to the west of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. In other words, it was prepared in the context of the particular site location.

I am delighted that not only did this government get elected with a mandate to have an integrated Women's and Children's Hospital in the Royal Adelaide Hospital precinct, but that the early work, work that was started within 100 days of this government getting elected, confirmed that it was feasible—in fact preferable—to have the integrated hospital right next door to the new Women's and Children's Hospital.

Let's be clear: the Women's and Children's Hospital is a top priority for this government. We had a—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! I want to hear the minister.

An honourable member interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: It is—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Honourable Leader of the Opposition, you asked the question; listen to the answer. The minister has the call.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: It is double the case because it was one of the key, distinctive health policy differences between the former Labor government and this government. Let's remember that it was seven years ago—

The Hon. I.K. Hunter interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hunter is out of order.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —that the former Labor government announced a new Women's and Children's Hospital. It is only three years ago since they abandoned that commitment. At the last election the people of South Australia had a choice: did they want—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Did they want a tired—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —incompetent Labor government separating an institution much loved by the community of South Australia, separating it so that we had only the women's bit at the North Adelaide site and the children's hospital condemned to be unrenovated on the North Adelaide site indefinitely? We did not regard that as acceptable, in spite of the fact that Labor promised the project seven years ago—

The Hon. E.S. Bourke interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Bourke!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —and failed to do anything—

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —to deliver it in four years, and in slightly over two years we are well on the way to delivering on that project.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: We have a consultation—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Minister, sit down. A question has been asked, the minister is giving a significant answer which I'm sure he is getting close to wrapping up, but I would like—

The Hon. R.P. Wortley interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Wortley! I would like to hear him and I'm sure the opposition should like to hear him, but they can't do that if they keep yelling, and I won't abide yelling. The minister, to wrap up his answer, please.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Thank you, Mr President, and I will certainly do that. The people of South Australia had a clear choice at the last election: a government that was committed to an integrated hospital on the North Adelaide site—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. S.G. WADE: —or an opposition that was committed to dismantling a much-loved South Australian institution.

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